Well, we finally met our nemesis on Wednesday night. No, not Ray Stubbs, the FA Cup. It was agreeable. The big ol’ jug was accompanied by Stubbs himself, understated Sutton legend Tony Rains and tireless charity cyclist (and FA Cup finalist, of course) Geoff Thomas. All three entertained the people of Sutton with a jovial and open Q&A in a pub next to the station. The fact that it was in a pub and attended by a handful of people perfectly encapsulated the early rounds of the FA Cup.

As the Cup was placed centre stage the sweet, sweet musk of nostalgia drifted over the pub and people gathered around to gasp and coo. Maybe that was just us, it was a very hot train we’d been on. There were, obviously, a fair few Sutton fans in the crowd, a couple of Palace fans on a pilgrimage and the odd, brash, unnecessary Premier League shirt. In total about 50 folk turned up to ask some interesting questions to a panel who’d seen the giant killing highs, the big game disappointments and the glamour ties.

Ray was the consummate pro, Rains kept it real and Geoff bridged the gap with the calm air of authority and humility that only a person faced with his own mortality can. Geoff has a perhaps unfair rep as a bit of a liability with three lions on his chest but he HAS played for England, he HAS been in an FA Cup final and he HAS played regularly in the top flight. Have you? No, of course you haven’t and neither have the vast majority of professional footballers. And he’s raised two million nicker for charity too.

We asked the chaps who their heroes were and Geoff kicked it off with evocative tales of Man City in their pomp and hanging around outside Maine Road waiting for Colin Bell’s autograph. Rains was at Fulham in the 70s so had trained with Moore and Best (and Marsh, to Geoff’s chagrin) and his hero was Moore but he noted Norwich City’s Andy Townsend as the best player he’d played against. Mr Tactics Truck is perhaps a surprising choice but, when you consider what Norwich (damn them) did to Sutton after their heroics against Coventry, it is perhaps less so. (8-0, for the youngsters)

Stubbs said he’d played with Steve Coppell and against Liverpool’s invincible 70s team. The banter turned up a notch in this section, Rains had already reeled off his Best & Moore yarn, Stubbs chipped in with his own George Best (while at Fort Lauderdale) story and, reeling from the stellar names, Geoff the top level pro pondered playing with Pardew and Wrighty. That Pardew was party ringleader after Palace’s epic Cup victory over Liverpool was a massive disappointment to me, such is his psyche imbued with the air of David Brent.  Gah, football, you most unpredictable of beasts.

Players’ recollections of the Wembley roar as they entered the arena are two a penny. We’ve heard it all before from the pitch-side, post-match, monosyllabic witterings of automatons. Not Geoff. Geoff explained the geography, the distance from changing rooms to pitch, the isolation from the crowd until you emerge from relative solitude into a bowl of noise. We were almost there.

The biggest cheer of the night went to Rains. To bring the magic of the Cup back, his popular suggestion was to “Bring back replays. If it takes 5 games, play 5 games”. Hell yeah! Slight surprise of the evening was Stubbs admission that he “didn’t always like interviewing Fergie”. That was quickly followed by the biggest snigger of the evening when Simon playfully suggested he might want to “go back to the BBC if he doesn’t like interviewing Alex Ferguson, as he still won’t talk to them”.

It’s easy to criticise big broadcasters for small concessions in such lowly surroundings, we have been guilty in the past and no doubt will be again. However, it would have been much easier for ESPN to do nothing and, indeed, for ITV to not pay any attention to the very early rounds of the FA Cup. So, while we can all be cynical, maybe a few more people will watch the FA Cup’s non-glamour games this year because some guy at ESPN had a bright idea and because another at ITV decided to embrace the earlier rounds a bit more by getting us to waffle on about it every other week.

Retain your cynicism but also maybe doff your cap a little to both ESPN and ITV. It was a good evening, cost nothing, entertained a few locals and Doombar was £2.70 a pint! Hence the fuzzy head today. We left with the impression that Stubbsy spends his entire life on the phone to Motty talking about Tranmere’s glorious FA Cup quarter finals.

Cheers to Gerard Mills @suttonunited for the heads up and apologies for the frankly pathetic headline.

Sutton 2 Coventry 1 – FA Cup 1989